Paul Pope

This September, Marvel Comics unveils their long-awaited Strange Tales MAX anthology series, but with the talent involved, they may as well have labeled the book Marvel Mome, after Fantagraphics long-running anthology of indie art comics. Culling creators from all over the world of alternative comics and literary graphic novels—from Paul Pope and Matt Kindt to Molly Crabapple and Peter Bagge—the stories in the three-issue Strange Tales comic recast such Marvel super heroes as Spider-Man and the Black Widow as quirky and complicated indie comics icons. And the editors behind the project hope that combination of mainstream superhero and alternative cartoonist will strike different chords for multiple audiences. Strange Tales #1 will be available in comic shops on September 2.

"I've been reading online how a lot of people are sad there aren't a lot of regularly published independent comics the way there used to be," said former Marvel editor John Barber pointing back to the early 1990s, the years when indie periodical comics proliferated. "[Back then] you wouldn't have an issue of Hate every four weeks, but if you went to a comic book store there'd be an issue of Hate or Eightball or Yummy Fur or something regularly. You could find something on the racks," Barber said. “As more and more stuff has shifted to graphic novels and bookstores—and that's great, I love graphic novels—it will be nice to have something to pick up every month with really interesting creators working on it."

Marvel has long term prospects for the series as well, perhaps evidenced by the fact that the Strange Tales series took three years to compile with the help of three separate editors. While Barber left the company to pursue a freelance writing career in July, he was the second of three editors to help corral indie talent to the project along with former editor Aubrey Sitterson (who currently works for both WWE and Image Comics) and the series' newest editorial shepherd Jody LeHeup. "It's one of those books where you needed somebody that's sympathetic to the material to understand what this book is," Barber told PWCW. "And the difference between it being really good and terrible can be kind of small. Fortunately, we've fallen on the really good side of things."

Dash Shaw

The series is reminiscent of DC Comic’s successfully received 2002 anthology Bizarro Comics, which turned over DC’s superhero cash cows to a gang of indie comics artists that included Jessica Abel, Evan Dorkin, Dylan Horrocks and many others. In the past, Marvel comics has also featured indie talent, such as 2003's Fantastic Four riff Unstable Molecules by James Sturm and Guy Davis which received a cold reception in comic shops before earning a wider audience as a collected graphic novel. With Strange Tales, the more traditional anthology format has gotten support from the company both in the form of heavy online promotion for the single issues before an eventual trade paperback is prepared for the book market.

To sweeten the pot for readers, Strange Tales includes a "lost" Peter Bagge comic—The Incorrigible Hulk—which will be serialized across the three installments. Frequently sought by alternative comics fans, the story was shelved by Marvel's corporate bosses who were concerned that a plot that involved Bruce Banner and his alter ego developing dependencies on mood-altering prescription drugs would hurt the Hulk's movie brand. However, Bagge admitted, "I figured it would see print eventually, but so much time had gone by that I stopped asking if or when, and stopped thinking about it altogether. So it was quite jarring to simply be reminded of it's existence, let alone that it was about to be printed!"

Other stories in the comic include Tony Millionaire's tale of Iron Man fighting villains made of bologna and other lunch meats, Crabapple's adventures of a Victorian-era She-Hulk and Nick Bertozzi’s evaluation of the psyche of giant-headed Hulk villain M.O.D.O.K. For each story, the editors allowed their artists to do as they pleased in character choice and tone, including acclaimed Norwegian cartoonist Jason who explained, "They sent files showing what other cartoonists had done, just to give me an idea. It was very flattering to be asked. I did it mostly for nostalgic reasons, and it was fun, to do a short Spider-Man story and to write dialogue for Peter Parker, Flash Thompson and Doctor Octopus. I suppose it mainly will be read by people who like alternative comics, but who grew up reading superhero comics and have the same nostalgic relation to it that I have."

In fact, that connection between cartoonist and classic Marvel material appears to be a major driver of why so many independent-minded creators have signed on, particularly with younger up cartoonists. "I definitely was a superhero fanboy," said Bottomless Belly Button creator Dash Shaw who drew a story for Strange Tales featuring Doctor Strange years before he had achieved so many professional accolades and awards. Shaw says that his Tales story came mostly as an excuse to pay homage to the legendary Dr. Strange artist Steve Ditko before moving on to longer, more complicated projects. "My work varies a lot, and even though I’ve drawn a lot of comics, it feels like each one is best thought of as a transitional piece,” said Shaw.

Stan Sakai

“I did Bottomless so that I could do [my web comic] BodyWorld, and I did BodyWorld so that I could do what I’m working on now. I don’t think that fans of Bottomless will necessarily like BodyWorld, or fans of my Dr. Strange story will necessarily like anything else I’ve done,” he continued. “I’m probably too eclectic. There will be a small base of people who are just interested in what I’m doing, but I don’t feel like I have a brand that extends over all of my works the way a lot of cartoonists do.”

But in the long term, Marvel has big plans for the stories in Strange Tales once they've completed their comic shop mini-series run. "I do think this is one of those books that's going to have a shelf life down the road, “said Barber, “something people will be reading in ten, 15 or 20 years.” Barber continued: “It's interesting to see where some of these artists have gone in the time since they've done their stories and imagining where they're going to go in the future. I think some of these people are going to be pretty huge names in the business as time goes on, and having something like this out there for the comic-reading market in different fields is definitely something on our minds. But we do want people to buy the individual issues. Those issues will be really great packages."

And as he finalizes the stories for the series' third issue, LeHeup is keeping an eye on how the usually separate worlds of alternative comics and superhero stories can work together, both creatively and in a market sense. "I think that speaks to the philosophy behind the book. People who buy alternative or independent comics often buy them in a collected form or a book form and don't frequent the comic shops to check out the Marvel rack and pick up a periodical book,” LeHeup explained. “I think one of the things we're trying to do here is not only to bring fans of independent comics to Marvel characters but also to bring Marvel readers to independent creators. I think the better we make the single issue comics, the more successful we'll be at achieving that end."